John
Eberson, born in Cernauti, Bukovina in 1875, a region of Romania,
was the master of “atmospheric” theater design. The
atmospheric theaters give the illusion of sitting in an exotic setting
and reflected
his European heritage, especially in
statuary and interior
motifs. In addition, Eberson's theater interiors contained landscape and garden
influences with numerous fountains and grottoes.1 Built in 1925 by Paramount, the Olympia Theatre at 174 E. Flagler Street, in Miami, Florida, is one of the few
Eberson buildings still standing.

The theater first opened in February of 1926 as a roughly 2000 seat silent movie palace and amazed the public with its stunning Moorish architecture, perfect acoustics and simulated night sky - complete with rolling clouds and twinkling stars.

From 1929-1954, the theatre featured vaudeville
performances. In 1954, it was converted back to a movie theatre.

On August 3, 1956 Elvis, Scotty, Bill, and DJ began a tour of shows in
Florida and New Orleans with performances at the Olympia. It had
been a month since their last performance, at Russwood
Park in Memphis on July 4, during which time Scotty and Bill's
salary had been reduced to $100 a week since they weren't working.
According to Scotty in his book,
in Miami, Elvis told reporters he was tired of being called the
"Pelvis." He had picked up the hip slinging moniker earlier in the
summer from Pinckney Keel, a reporter with the Clarion-Ledger, a
Jackson, Mississippi, morning newspaper. Keel had done a 15 minute
interview with Elvis and was headed back to the newsroom when the phrase
"Elvis the Pelvis" popped in his mind. To Elvis' displeasure, the
tag stuck.

The review of Friday's opening show by Denne Petitclerc in
the Miami Herald read, Elvis Presley, a big shouldered kid in a pink coat and long black pants, staggered onto the stage at the Olympia Theater Friday like
a drunken Brando. And the mob, which stretched way up into the darkness of the theater, stood up and shrieked.
Even when Marciano was belting the sense out of Moore in the ball park in New York there was no such shriek. It vibrated the air, piercing everything like a trillion tiny knives in the
dimness.2

Oh, go man, go!" one girl in shorts screamed, her frantic hands at her black hair, eyes stunned and face contorted. And how they screamed.
Presley jogged around the mike, and opened his mouth, and the mob drowned the sound away. He loosened his white tie and licked his lips and tried again, but the jam of teenage girls wouldn't let his voice
go.2

They had started lining up outside the theater at midnight Thursday.
Before noon Friday, the crowd had grown into a line around the block, and then packed the theater to standing room, waiting just to see this mumbling, swaying kid in the pink coat.
The bedlam trembled. "I want you," sang Presley, "I need you..."2

The mob of girls surged to the stage, where they knelt, arms upraised.
A band of policemen, who were shaking their heads in disbelief, rushed in and pried the kids from the stage.
Presley smiled, his shaggy brown hair began to fall like a horse's mane, and even that brought a thundering of delighted
squeals.2

"Nothing like it since Sinatra started," one cop said. "I don't see how these kids can get so excited."
Excitement was the word. Among the hundreds of teenage girls, some clutched photographs of Presley fondly, others wore straw cowboy hats,
others had magazines with his picture printed brightly on the front.
And on the stage, the kid in the pink coat closed his eyes and strummed his guitar and swayed passionately. "I need
you-oo, I want you-oo." And a 1956 hysteria swelled and smashed away the sound of his
music.2

Other reviewers had less flattering takes on the shows. The Miami
Daily News reported, After the first Olympia Theater appearance of the shouting shake-dancer, known to teenagers as "The Pelvis,"
a crowd estimated at 2000 became hysterical, tried to break a police line in rush for
the SE 2nd Avenue stage entrance when Presley was seen briefly at
an upstairs fire escape door. Police, losing to waving fans later
regained ground in a big push back to the sidewalk line at the barber pole (top
right in photo). The street was blocked off. What's all the fuss about? Fans wanted just a signature or sign from the
vaudeville Valentino. 3

Jack Anderson, the Herald's Radio and TV editor wrote,
Elvis Presley, the tousle headed high priest of a momentary (everybody old enough to vote sincerely hopes)
teenage cult in which the litany is a sustained scream, made his Miami debut Friday at the Olympic Theater.
Don't ask this reviewer what the Tennessee wonder sang. And if anyone of the 2000 kids who packed the theater tries to tell you, he's spoofing. Nothing very much was audible on
stage.4

From the time Elvis staggered (he staggers more than he wiggles) into the spotlight until he left, the auditorium was filled with an unrelenting high pitched shriek which must have made the old theater's stuffed peacocks start
molting.
I heard only one word of one song -- the opening song. The word was "This..." The rest of that song and the others which followed were covered up by the tumult.
You wonder why the kids put out a buck and a half to hear him until the celebrated Presley body movements get under
way.4

These movements have been damned by writers from
coast to coast as contributing to the delinquency of our minors. It may
be that Elvis' joints weren't well oiled Friday but I found them more
hilarious than lascivious. Most of the time he stands on stage
with his feet spread apart and sways clumsily back and forth clinging to
the microphone which he whips up and down like a pump handle.4

Presley is preceded on the show by singers Frankie
Connors and Nancy Ford; The Headliners, an instrumental group; the
Jordanaires vocal group, which also takes part in Presley's act, and a
comedian-magician, Frank Maraquin. Elvis will be on hand again today.
The shows are at 1:30, 3:30, 7 and 9 p.m.4

Del Puschert, a tenor Saxophone player from Maryland, had first met
Elvis, Scotty and Bill in Texarkana in 1954 or 1955 while they were
still performers of and enroute to the Louisiana Hayride. Del was
now, by this time, attending barber school in Miami. He was part of the
local union band put together to augment the
tour orchestra backing the acts performing in Miami at
the Olympia this tour. He was backstage with Elvis when pants torn
by the crowd were cut up and then tossed to the fans in line from an upper
window of the theater overlooking SE 2nd Avenue across from the Ingraham Building.

Saturday's Ad in the Miami News - Aug. 4, 1956

Miami News Staff Writer Damon Runyon Jr. called the show obscene
and contrived in his review. He wrote, For the second day Elvis Presley, the vaudeville Valentino, rocked
along his bumpy road to success here today after his fanatical followers
engaged in a small scale street riot. More than 8800 fans, ranging from agitated adolescents to old ladies
fallen from Liberace's grace, were expected to shriek, rattle and roll
again at Presley's shake dancing in the Olympia Theater. Police were braced for the most exuberant exhibition audience fantods
in the afternoon shows, 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. which usually are the
stomping grounds for the youngest affected by Presley.5

Young girls (many less than teen age), not a few youths, and even a
number of elderly deserters from Liberace's ranks, witnessed their
"lover boy," as they call him do the most obscene burlesque
dance this reporter has seen in more than 20 years of getting around.
From the theater wings it was possible to see that the 21 year old
Presley's ribald routine is not of the emotions, as he's been telling
the press around the country -- his pelvic performance is clearly
contrived. Also far from fervor of the uncontrolled type are his other million
dollar stage mannerisms -- the slack jawed gibberish, the glassy gape of
a hypnotized hillbilly, the unmannered gesture of wiping the nose, the
staggering and shaking as if he'd a bad fit.5

Toward the end of his last 20 minute performance late last night we
witnessed from the wings his quick glance at his wristwatch. At
the time he was as far as the screaming audience could see, in the
process of a convulsion that a psychiatrist would find interesting. However, a psychiatrist, like the reporter, would probably be engaged
in studying the audience hysteria, which had even Presley grinning from
time to time. There was nothing wrong with Presley that a count of
his money won't cure. Maybe that's why he grinned.5

It was after the first of yesterday's three capacity rock-'n'-riot
performances--which fetched a total 7,000 jumping jacks and jills -- that
about 2,000 almost broke a police line to rush the stage door. The teeming
teeners, who turned from screaming to scheming for a
glimpse or grasp at their hero of Heartbreak Hotel, blocked SE 2nd
Avenue at about 5 p.m. as stable citizens were jammed in rush hour
traffic.5

During one of the performances at the Olympia, the fans
close to the stage got hold of Elvis lavender (pink) jacket and tore
parts of it from him. In a retrospective article in the Miami
Herald on the 50th Anniversary of the Miami concert, Margaria
Fichtner quoted local Miami historian Arva Moore Parks who was in line
waiting to see the show, "The line from the box office zigzagged for blocks, and I was standing right about where the side door of
the Gusman
is. So the first show came out, and there were grown women, I mean not
teenagers, carrying pieces of his pink coat."6

When asked recently, Arva recalled, I remember a pink
jacket but that was a very long time ago and I was quite young. I would
have been standing right where this picture (of the clothes being
tossed) was taken. I do not remember pieces of his clothes being
thrown to the crowd. I remember people coming out of the theater with a
piece of his clothing in their hand. I cannot say if I was there on
Friday or Saturday. I am sure I was there at the last show because it
was nighttime and I was waiting in line in the dark.

All the reviews of the opening performance on Friday
mention the pink (lavender) jacket and black pants but the photos in Saturday's morning
papers show Elvis only dressed in dark clothes, which would suggest they
were taken at evening performances on Friday. Subsequently, other photos
show Elvis in the pink (lavender) jacket and light colored pants, as do
the photos of the crowd ripping it from him. This would suggest
that Arva was there on Saturday. In any case, both the remnants of
the jacket and pants went home with Del Puschert and wound up in a trunk
at his mother's house in Hollywood, Florida. After her passing, Del
found them and has since displayed them in his Annapolis barber shop.

In addition to the jacket and pants, Elvis also had to
replace his new Lavender Lincoln while in Miami. Brian Petersen in
"The Atomic Powered Singer" wrote, his fans got to his brand new
Lincoln Premiere and wrote
endearing notes all over the car. Elvis turned the car in for an all
white Continental Mark II at the local Lincoln Mercury dealer. The new
car was in the $10,000.00 and over class and provided an added touch of distinction to the Presley driveway parked alongside his three remaining
Cadillacs.

During the seven performances in the two days in Miami,
Elvis performed to approximately 15,000 fans. It is probably no
surprise then with review(er)s and events like these from Miami, when
coupled with the events that happened the year before in
Jacksonville, that Judge Marion Gooding was
having cause for concern about Elvis' upcoming appearance at the
Florida Theater less than a week away.

Margaria, in her article, also wrote, Elvis "was on his way to
somewhere else,'' says biographer Peter Guralnick, who details the Miami
gig in Last Train to Memphis. ``This was really the tail end of his
touring of the South. He'd been doing that for almost two years. . . .
But now, you know, the Florida tour was really an interlude on his way
to making the first movie, which was, in essence, the end for almost 15
years of his career as a live performer.''5

Box office and Marquee at the Olympia - c 2005 Photo courtesy web

After many years of showing films, the theatre was nearly demolished for a parking lot but was purchased in 1970 by Maurice Gusman for the Miami Philharmonic Orchestra. Renamed as the Maurice Gusman Cultural Center, the theater reoperned in 1972. In 1975, the theatre was donated to the City of Miami and
underwent an extensive renovation from 1975-1977, in part, by the famed architect
Morris
Lapidus.

By the late 1990s virtually every structural system of the theater was
in need of repair and replacement. The roof had several leaks that had
damaged the theater’s historic paint and plaster as well as the
seating and carpeting in the auditorium. The HVAC system had to be
entirely replaced. Electrical, sound systems, and plumbing all required
upgrades.

While the structural repairs were underway additional projects were
launched to make the theater more attractive to promoters. The stage was
enlarged and new lighting and audio equipment were installed. The
theater’s already sublime acoustic properties were left intact. Today,
as the restoration work nears completion, the venue has retained its
stature – just as it was in 1926. The building, now the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts,
is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Elvis Presley, the rock 'n' roll Romeo millions of girls scream about, is "going steady" with two of them.
At the moment, The Miami News was informed, one has the upper hand.
She's a shapely Biloxi brunette who was passed through police lines to Presley's Olympia Theater dressing room where she reportedly stroked his brow between stage shows.

Before millions of apparent losers throw hysterics and maybe hit someone, possibly Presley, we hasten to add that this first report on his romances comes from the Mississippi miss herself.
Furthermore, June Juanico, 18, the Biloxi beauty whom Presley evidently prefers to aspirin, admitted that Elvis is as unsteady in love as he is on the stage.

"It would be nice if Elvis loved me as much as I love him," June sighed. "But right now he is married to his career and he isn't thinking of marriage."
"If Elvis doesn't marry it'd be a sin to let something like that go to waste."

A blue- eyed girl built on the order of the Mississippi River - long and with lots of curves - June sportingly reported that Presley has another "steady," a 19 year old Memphis miss.
"So," she confessed, "its hard to tell whether I'm No. 1 or No. 2 in his life - but I'm happy being one or the other."

June, whose hair is bobbed Italian-style, said she's going on the Presley tour of six Florida cities and New Orleans. But when he returns to Memphis, she
said, "I don't know just what I'll do."

Interviewed by The News in the tunnel underneath the Olympia stage, June explained she met the rising young guitar holder and shake dancer in
Biloxi a year ago. She added,
"I went backstage to see him and saw a big crowd, so I went to the ladies room. When I came out -- there he was.
"Within five minutes he asked me to show him the town. I accepted, naturally. We went to see two or three floor shows in night clubs.
"I knew then that this was the real thing.

"Well you know how love is. Eight months went by and I never heard from him. No letters or anything. Then I went to Memphis and it started all over again.
"He's a wonderful guy when you know him, I mean if you really know him, real deep down under he's a real warm individual and treats everyone so nice."

She can't miss a show. Overhead, while June was talking and posing for us deep down under the stage, Presley was warming up and she didn't want to miss even one performance.
Standing in the wings with her, we noticed that June didn't scream like the other girls. She only bounced a bit (rather well, too) while Presley did standing knee jerks for the audience.

We asked why the girls, especially the younger set, threw such hysterics -- and how come she didn't scream. Without missing a knee jerk or bounce June
replied,
"If you were a member of the opposite sex you'd appreciate him, too. And I do feel like screaming."

article include with original page May 23, 2008

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